The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for locating and positioning stiffener members on a plate or panel and, in particular, a method and apparatus for locating, positioning and fitting reinforcing stiffener beams on plates or panels for use in barge construction, specifically a barge construction assembly including a stiffener handling/loading gantry for loading stiffeners along a stiffener locator assembly for positioning and fastening the stiffener to large, flat steel plates or panels via a stiffener fitting gantry to form a barge bottom.
The outer wall of a barge bottom is constructed of flat steel plates which have been seam welded together to form a larger flat plate called a panel. The seam welds are almost always made in the direction of the width of the finished barge, transverse direction.
Flat plate panels are subsequently reinforced by adding angle bars or stiffeners positioned vertically on the flat plate panel to provide rigidity to the panel. The stiffeners are placed on the panel parallel to the panel seam welds also in the direction of the barge width (transverse to the panel length). These stiffeners are placed on pre-determined spacings indicated by manually drawn chalk lines and are customarily located and held in place manually for fitting and tack welding.
However, such manual fitting of stiffeners is very laborious, time consuming, inaccurate in locating and positioning and dangerous to the workers.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for locating, positioning and fitting stiffeners on barge panels which is accurate and efficient. The present invention fulfills such a need.
The present invention comprises a barge construction assembly including three main components: a stiffener locator assembly, a stiffener handling/loading gantry, and a stiffener fitting gantry. The stiffener locator assembly includes a plurality of opposing pairs of stiffener locator units on opposite sides of a conveyor system. Each stiffener locator unit includes at least one stiffener locator. Barge panels are moved into position between the stiffener locator units. The stiffener handling/loading gantry sequentially moves stiffener members from a stack and lowers them into successive stiffener locators. Once the stiffener members have been loaded into the stiffener locator, the stiffener fitting gantry successively presses the stiffener members against the barge panel and preliminarily tack welds them thereto.
Accordingly, it is the principle object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for positioning and locating stiffener members on a panel member.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a stiffener locator assembly for barge construction.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a stiffener loading gantry for barge construction.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a stiffener fitting gantry for barge construction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an efficient automated method and apparatus for locating and positioning stiffeners without the need for chalk lines.
Numerous other advantages and features of the invention will become readily apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, from the claims, and from the accompanying drawings in which like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the same.